Rugby union player Alivereti Veitokani was named as sportsman of the year at the Fiji Sports Awards but Fiji Football Association (FFA) President Rajesh Patel has claimed that footballer Roy Krishna should have won.

Patel made his comments at an event held to celebrate the achievements of Krishna, a striker who left New Zealand club Wellington Phoenix in June to join India Super League side ATK.

His remarks, however, came nearly five months after the award ceremony which was held on March 1.

"What Roy has achieved, no other sportsman in Fiji has," said Patel, according to the Fiji Sun.

"Maybe it was the judges, but Roy deserved to be the sportsman of the year.

"And I want to tell the public and the sports fraternity – 'you don't recognise him but we at FFA will for what he deserves'.

"The sports fraternity, and especially FASANOC, made the wrong call."

Mar said that a panel of judges, and not FASANOC, decided the award winners.

"The decision was not FASANOC's to make," she said to FBC News.

"It was a judging panel.

"Perhaps it would have been more appropriate for Mr. Patel to voice his disappointment immediately after the awards."

Krishna won the A-League golden boot with Wellington Phoenix in the 2018-2019 season and was awarded the Johnny Warren Medal as the division's best player.

He was named as Wellington's sportsman of the year in front of acclaimed All Blacks rugby union player TJ Perenara.

The Awards in March only covered sporting achievement in 2018.